Vanishing Act
by x-Avarice-x
Summary: The Doctor investigates a strange message on the psychic paper and ends up running into a very unexpected companion. *COMPLETE*
1. Prologue

The message on the psychic paper was more than just alarming. It was downright creepy.

The TARDIS had been zipping around the Universe carrying its lone passenger when said passenger yelped loudly and unexpectedly in pain. He reached frantically into his jacket pocket and pulled out the wallet containing said psychic paper and unceremoniously tossed it on the floor. The Doctor crouched beside it and flipped the top open with a finger to see words on the paper, glowing red as if they were on fire. Hence the yelping in pain and the unceremonious throwing.

"What in the name of Raxacoricofallapatorius...?" he said aloud, speaking to himself for not the first time today. The TARDIS was always the one to relay these psychic messages, but how could a single psychic message be so great as to burn paper?

The Doctor thought about it for a moment, ignoring the fact that he had yet to read the actual message itself. In theory, it COULD have been caused by a massive telepathic field, which in turn COULD have been created by one or more living beings sending out the same message at once, which COULD mean that someone somewhere was in trouble. As per usual, of course. It took him a moment to realize that he had spoken all of that aloud.

He finally turned his attention to the actual message itself, which was one word repeated, over and over again. He balked, then picked up the wallet, in case there was any possible way he could be reading this wrong. The red of the words was fading with the heat that had accompanied the sudden message. The black ink was haunting to read.

It was simply the word, "Pain" repeated until it filled the entire paper. The Doctor jumped into action.


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer****: **As much as I would love having The Master's incredibly sexy self tied up in my basement for the rest of forever, I do not own Doctor Who or anything affiliated with it. Except in my head.

This fic is set between "Planet of the Dead" and "Waters of Mars". I love reviews!

xxxxxxxxxx

The TARDIS landed with a soft thud. It was the year 6013, according to his ever-present companion. He took a quick look at the screen to determine where exactly they were. It was a planet with thriving vegetation, from what he could see, located in the Mutter's Spiral galaxy. That was a good sign at least. The name of the planet was apparently Alpha 137-z9. Not a very exciting name for a planet.

The Doctor took a final look at the psychic paper. The message was still there, showing no signs of fading. He tucked the wallet into his pocket and set off, grabbing his brown coat along the way.

He stepped outside and was hit with bright, warm light. At least the weather was pleasant; he could have left his coat behind. Deciding against taking it back, he spun around casually, looking for signs of life anywhere. A huge building not too far off caught his eye. He raised an eyebrow. "In the middle of nowhere... an office building. I will never understand humans." He set off toward it.

Approaching the towering object, he noticed that it seemed rather... reinforced. The entire building was more than just an office, it seemed. From his vantage point, it almost looked like the place could double as a fortress. The armed guards standing around and all. He waved at them as soon as three of them pointed their weapons at his head. "Hello there!"

"Who are you?" the closest guard to him said, gun pointed at the Doctor's hearts.

"Oi, no need for that, you could put someone's eye out with that thing. Didn't your mother ever teach you not to play with dangerous objects?" The Doctor took one large step to his left, out of the direct fire of the gun. The guard pointed it at him again. "I said, who are you?"

The Doctor sighed. "I'm the, uh-" he fumbled around in his pocket for the psychic paper, then flashed it briefly in front of the man's face. "I'm the new Co-Coordinator for... Human Resources," he added quickly, briefly wondering if they still had that in the year 6013. "John Smith's the name." He glanced at the psychic paper before putting it back in his pocket. His fake Co-Coordinator credentials had been there for a moment, but the message from before was back again. He slipped the wallet back into his pocket, "So, if you wouldn't mind escorting me inside..."

The guards looked at each other skeptically. One of them spoke, "Where is your vehicle?"

"Oh, it's parked over there," the Doctor gestured in the general direction of somewhere behind him. "I fancied the scenic route," he explained with a toothy grin. "Walks are fun, more fun than running at any rate. Mind you," he added, "running is usually acquainted with trouble-"

"Alright, alright. Come on, let's go," the guard near him with the gun pointed at his chest finally lowered the weapon.

The Doctor had been observing the three of them closely, especially their uniforms. "You three are awfully rude. I'm personally acquainted with the General, you know, he'll have words with you after this."

The three of them looked at each other. Their uniforms were specially made, but they still bore the insignia of their military. Said military was fairly secretive though, and off-planet, mostly unknown to the inhabitants of this one. Few people in the military itself even knew they HAD that rank anymore. If this man said that he knew the General, he probably did. Crap.

"We apologize, sir. Follow me please," the close one said. He turned away, expecting the Doctor to follow him.

"Oh, drop the 'sir' would you?" he said, slightly annoyed, following the man inside the building. He looked around, fascinated. The entire building was non-human architecture on the inside, beautiful stuff. The very middle was hollow, so that you could see all the way up to the ceiling. It was gigantic, many stories high, and the ceiling was covered in intricate carvings of many alien lifeforms.

"Um, of course, si-, I mean... Yes, Mister Smith." They finally approached the front desk and the guard made a motion with his head toward the lift. "Human Resources is on floor 16.."

"Thank you, Mister Guard, I will let you get back to your... uh, guarding and stuff." The Doctor looked confused at himself for a moment, then flashed another grin and shoved his hands in the pockets of his coat, walking merrily to the elevator. The guard briefly wondered if the man was mad and he watched the doors close as the Doctor hit the button for Floor 16.


	3. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer****: **As much as I would love having The Master's incredibly sexy self tied up in my basement for the rest of forever, I do not own Doctor Who or anything affiliated with it. Except in my head.

This fic is set between "Planet of the Dead" and "Waters of Mars". I love reviews! And the Master!

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It was a curious button, to be sure. From his experience around humans, the only floors labeled in elevators with the letter L were L - Lobby, and LL - Lower Lobby. This place, however, had a floor beneath the B - Basement called L0. It was definitely the number zero, not the letter 'O'. And there were guards stationed outside a perfectly normal-looking office building, which happened to be in the middle of nowhere. Curiouser and curiouser. He did like Alice in Wonderland.

The elevator itself was huge, large enough to carry at least two dozen people. Industrial sized, he decided. It made sense, considering the number of people who must work in this building. Nevertheless, he didn't much enjoy being squished in with them.

The elevator made that delightful ding noise that elevators often made, and the doors slid open smoothly. The floor was filled with cubicle after cubicle, most of the respective owners on the holophone or speaking to one another in self-important tones. They were all human, or at least they all looked human. There were a few other species besides humans and Time Lords that looked similar on the exterior. He noted a long hallway in the back, most likely leading to the boss's office. He casually headed in that direction, pretending to interrupt and apologize to a blond woman near the back.

"Excuse me, sorry to bother, but is this the way to the meeting?" he asked, all spiky hair and white teeth.

"The HR meeting, yes. Last door on the left, I think."

"Thank you," he replied, then left before she could ask who exactly he was. He made his way to the end of the hall, past a few more offices with a few more self-important people with self-important tones inside. The last door on the left wasn't open, but he quietly slipped inside anyway. It seemed as though the meeting was already underway. There were several people in suits sitting around a large table, watching a holovid screen and the man presenting from it.

"...And if this project is approved, there will be hundreds of new jobs, including several here in the HR department. In fact..."

Yawn. The Doctor sat in the last seat, the only one that was empty. He fit in somewhat, with the fancy 21st century suits, but that was where the resemblance between himself and the humans ended. Some were female, others looked far older than he did, which was always amusing. He looked around, less than half listening to the presenter. He did catch, however, that the man was the Vice President of this particular office building. That could be useful.

He wasn't one for sitting around and waiting for things to happen. However, this meeting was so unbearably boring that he couldn't find a proper point to interrupt. Had to be dramatic, you know. He couldn't just say whatever in the middle of things. There would have to be a question and answer session sometime. So he reached into his coat pocket and rummaged around a bit. They had to be in here somewhere... Ah ha!

He pulled out the plastic spoon that had been in there who knows how long, and peeled away the plastic lid on his pudding cup. Mmmmm vanilla. Butterscotch would have been better, but oh well. Why were they all looking at him like that? Perhaps it was because none of them had seen him before.

It wasn't long before he was busily scraping the last bits of the pudding from the bottom of the cup. The Vice President was talking about the project, which was expanding the actual building itself, making another branch off of the west wall downstairs, and building a surface tunnel, rather a hallway, to a secondary building, where-

"HA!" the Doctor yelled, and every person in the room, aside from himself, jumped in surprise. They all stared at him with faces of both anger and 'What the hell are you doing?'

"Err..." He noticed, looking up with the spoon hanging out of his mouth. "I got the last bit," he explained, then cleared his throat. "Sorry," he said, tossing both the empty cup and the plastic spoon into the garbage nearby. "You were saying?" he said, looking at the Vice President expectantly.

"Sorry," the man began testily, "but I don't think I've ever seen you before. What's your name again?"

"I never gave it," the Doctor said, jumping up out of his seat and making his way quickly to the front of the room. "But while I have your attention, I have a question for you, if you don't mind, but of course you don't mind, so let me ask. This entire building is surrounded by a non-human telepathic field. Why is that?"

"A what?" the VP said, visibly confused. "A telepathic field?"

"That's what I said, thank you, copycat." _"...Blimey, I sound like Donna."_

"I assure you, there is no such thing." The VP stiffened, as if accused of wrongdoing himself.

"Oh, but there is!" He took out his handy dandy sonic screwdriver and scanned the room. He inspected it, as if he didn't already know the answer. "You see? Non-human telepathic field. Except..." he said aloud, more to himself than anyone. "It doesn't say which species is putting out the field, like it's... unknown. Why would it be unknown?"

"Sir, I'm afraid I will have to ask you to leave. You are interrupting a very important meeting." The VP was quite angry at this point and hit a button on the desk behind him, presumably to call security.

"Alright, alright, no need to get your- ...What do you people wear these days anyway? Knickers?"

"Get out!" the man roared, his face becoming more and more red with anger.

"Fine fine, blimey you're rude!" The Doctor swept out of the room quickly and managed to reach the elevator again in time to hear the delightful ding and four guards walk quickly past him, toward the conference room he had just been in. The VP had been more aggravated than a normal person would have, which suggested that he probably knew nothing about the field. An odd conclusion to most, but the Doctor could always tell when someone was lying. Well, almost always. His office was likely on the top floor, but first... time to check out L0.

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It was awfully dark down here.

L0 was below the basement, and was about as big as a few Earth airplane hangars lined up end to end, but it wasn't quite as tall. The floor itself seemed to be made of... concrete? It was the year 6013, they couldn't find anything better than concrete?

He walked as quietly as he could down the large corridor, but there didn't seem to be anyone around. No guards or personnel, nothing. A pair of double doors sat alone at the other end and he made his way toward them.

Suddenly, he smelled something. It was slightly familiar, but also wrong. He also couldn't place it, which aggravated him somewhat. No matter. It passed quickly, and he brushed it off. The lights on the ceiling afforded him little light and he hoped there weren't any Vashta Nerada lurking about. It was pretty unlikely they would be in a place like this, but still. It echoed here. He hated places that echoed.

He was about halfway down the room when one of the double doors suddenly opened. A woman stepped through, walking quickly in his direction. The shadows hid him well enough and he had plenty of time to move away from her by the time she reached where he was standing. She seemed in a rush, but the closer she got, the more impossible she was.

Her blond hair was up in a ponytail, bangs neatly brushed. She was in a very professional looking 21st century gray pant suit with heels. They clicked smartly every time she took a step. There was a clipboard in her hand and she nervously hooked a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

She looked up and spotted him, stopping dead in her tracks, afraid that he was a guard with a gun. She gasped, "Don't come any closer!"

She obviously couldn't see him in this darkness. He slowly took a step forward, into the light that was now above his head. She stared and was impossible, all at the same time. Now he remembered where that smell had some from.

"Dad?"

He slipped his hands into the pockets of his coat, a severe look on his face. "Hi Jenny."


	4. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer****: **As much as I would love having The Master's incredibly sexy self tied up in my basement for the rest of forever, I do not own Doctor Who or anything affiliated with it. Except in my head.

This fic is set between "Planet of the Dead" and "Waters of Mars". I love reviews! And the Master!

xxxxxxxxxx

"Dad!" she ran at him, then stopped short when she noticed his intense stare. It wasn't a look she had ever seen before, but it was similar to the one she had gotten from him while they were stuck in the prison cell with Donna, when he told her she was nothing more than an echo of a Time Lord. Even if that was true, she was alive right now. She was real, but his look seemed to say otherwise. He looked both young and impossibly old at the same time. She made a mental note to ask him how he did that.

"You're dead, Jenny." His hands were buried in his pockets, as if that would protect him somehow while simultaneously making him look cool.

"No, I'm not!" She took another small step toward him, but he didn't move.

"Yes you are. You died." He said the last word with a strange finality. "You must be some sort of... psychic vision." The non-human telepathic field was stronger down here than up in the building. He could block it out easily enough, but perhaps it was messing with him anyway. Somehow. It had to be.

"No, really, I didn't- well I guess I did, but- It was the terraforming device!" she explained quickly, watching his face turn from impossible to incredible as she talked. "I breathed the gases in while I was dying, Cline said he saw me breathe out a cloud of them when I woke up. It healed me. It's meant to bring life, like you said! Look!" She carefully pulled down the white, button down shirt beneath her suit, just enough so that he could see that the wound was gone, as if it had never been.

"Of course!" he suddenly exploded, hitting himself in the forehead. "I'm thick! Thick thickity thick like molasses on Pluto!"

"Wouldn't that be frozen-"

"The terraforming device could create whole creatures from the gases alone, plants and animals, everything. Repairing an already living, well, already dead organism would have been easy compared to what it was meant to do." He was staring at her now, as if he still couldn't quite believe she was there.

Everything about her was real. She had cut her hair though. It was a bit shorter in the back now, but still in the ponytail. It suited her. She raised her arm. "Here, touch my hand. I'm real, you can feel my hearts beating." There was nothing interfering with his sensory systems. Nothing. He knew that.

The Doctor cautiously raised his hand and matched it to hers. Two hearts. A huge grin suddenly spread across his face and Jenny was promptly swept up in a hug. She laughed and felt herself being spun around. Her feet connected with the floor again, and she almost hit him in the head with her clipboard by accident. "What are you doing here?"

"I stole the ship!" she explained with a grin. "The one on Messaline, the one the humans and Hath came in. I wanted to see other worlds and save people like you do! It's been several months since I left though. Oh, but!" Jenny looked at the watch on her wrist. "We have exactly three minutes, we have to get back upstairs."

"Why, what's in three minutes?"

"Just come on!" She practically dragged him back to the elevator, across the huge, echoing chasm that was L0. "I'll tell you when we get upstairs, I'm on floor seven," she said, pressing the up arrow. It arrived very quickly, almost too quickly, as if that particular up arrow was given special permission to shove the others out of the way, and quite rudely too.

They hopped on and floor seven was reached without incident. Jenny quickly led the Doctor to a cubicle in the middle of the large room, surrounded by many other identical cubicles. She sat in the chair in front of the computer and the Doctor took the chair beside the desk. Jenny started to speak quietly, and in rushed tones.

"Okay, so I've been investigating this place for a while-"

"How long is a while?"

"A few months, but they finally hired me a week and a half ago after I wouldn't leave them alone-"

"That a girl!" he said with a grin.

Jenny beamed. "Thing is, it's weird here. There are tons of departments, lots of floor bosses and things like that, but no one really DOES anything. I mean, occasionally someone needs a file for the boss or they have to put something in the electronic databases, but aside from that, everyone just sits around talking and doing nothing. It's like-"

"Like they're all here for show," the Doctor finished. Jenny nodded and he turned to her computer.

"Internet capabilities, connections to most of the databases and servers in the building, and way too many backgrounds to choose from," she said, before he could ask her anything about the computer. He just grinned. "Thing is, it's not just that no one does anything," she said, lowering her voice even more. "I said I'd been researching this place for the last few months, and I found something weird. This particular office has been losing employees left and right."

"Losing? How do you mean losing?"

"They just disappear. I've spoken to sixteen different families, each family had a member who worked here, and all sixteen have disappeared within the last two months. They get up in the morning, come to work... and never make it back home again."

"Now that's odd. Let's have a look see." The Doctor pulled out his handy dandy sonic screwdriver and pointed it at the computer. The familiar whirring sound made Jenny smile.

She continued to speak while he was working, "The missing people are all humans and everyone who works here is human." The Doctor gave her a funny look. She sighed in exasperation. "Well of course I'M not, but I passed for it through a bit of trickery. As far as I can tell, I'm the only one who isn't. I've been sneaking around the personnel files," she explained. "Once the employees disappear, all trace of them is gone. Their personnel file is completely erased and their work area is given to someone else as soon as possible."

"Now there's something interesting!" he said, putting his glasses on. "There are a few hidden databases inside the system," he changed the setting on the sonic screwdriver and it whirred away again. The databases became visible. Two were very small, as if they were personal private servers, but the third was huge.

Jenny suddenly started talking fast again, as if she suddenly remembered something, "The past week I've been sneaking around the security cameras as well, and I noticed something weird." She paused, trying to see if he was listening or not. He looked at her and motioned for her to continue. "Every day, at the exact same time, for exactly fifteen minutes, all of the guards on L0 vacate the place. When they come back, they have some sort of... cargo transport vehicle, full of... stuff." She couldn't think of any other word. "And it seems as though the President disappears from his office at that same time every day, but no one ever sees him come or go."

"Is that why you were down there?" he asked, fiddling with the computer continuously.

She nodded, "I've been investigating down there the last few days, but there are a lot of hallways, and a huge door I can't get through without a code."

"Bah, codes, who needs codes?" he hit a button on the keyboard and grinned. "There we are! Hidden hard drives galore!" The huge server was laying open in front of them. Folders upon folders of information was at their fingertips. The Doctor chose one labeled "Radiation" and opened it. It was full of charts and graphs depicting what looked like radiation levels from some machine. Each piece of information was disjointed, as if they couldn't possibly combine to form one thing without the user going mad. Perhaps it would have been too frightening to see. He knew this couldn't be good.

"Wait," he suddenly turned to her. "If you've been down there, why haven't they caught you with security cameras and all that?"

"I loop them," she shrugged. "Hacking into their security system is easy."

His grin just got wider. She wasn't running around guns blazing anymore, she used her mind to investigate things now. Another Time Lord... Brilliant.

"I don't know if we can get back down there now though, they're unloading the stuff," she said, casually looking through the revealed files on the computer.

"Can you get into the security system again?" he asked.

"Yeah, sure. I'm guessing you have a plan?" Her eyes twinkled in excitement.

His grin spread to his entire face. "Time to get through that door!"


	5. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer****: **As much as I would love having The Master's incredibly sexy self tied up in my basement for the rest of forever, I do not own Doctor Who or anything affiliated with it. Except in my head.

This fic is set between "Planet of the Dead" and "Waters of Mars". I love reviews! And the Master!

xxxxxxxxxx

"You want me to what now?"

"Just do it!" The Doctor had the sonic screwdriver in hand, turning settings this way and that, trying to remember the one he was thinking of.

"Alright then," Jenny replied, hacking into the personnel files once again and pulling up the names of the security team and head personnel. The Doctor scanned their names and pictures, just enough to remember each of them. A man named Jason Wright was the President of this particular office. Jenny had already looped the footage as he had asked, but observed the current footage until the vehicle that the guards had escorted was gone, all materials unloaded.

"Time to go!" he announced quietly, standing up and speaking to her as if they had just finished a meeting about some product that the company produced, though there was no such thing, according to Jenny. They walked to the elevator, Jenny with her clipboard as the Doctor's escort out of the building. They had to ride the elevator up and down a bit before it was just them inside the metal box. The Doctor hit L0 and they started down.

As they hit the bottom, the Doctor pointed his sonic screwdriver at the buttons, which disabled both the dinging sound he enjoyed so much and the lights overhead. The elevator doors slid silently open and they both slipped out, unknown to the guards. There were at least fifteen of them, probably more. The Doctor straightened up and walked straight at female guard. She immediately turned her gun to his head. He almost sighed aloud.

"Hello there! I'm Professor John Smith and this is my assistant, Jane Doe. We have been sent by Mister Wright to monitor the... changes in the project. System checks and all that," he gestured in the direction of the double doors with a hand and flashed the psychic paper. Jenny had previously assured him that none of the guards had ever seen her before.

The guard was unconvinced. "No one except the President himself has access to that room. You don't look familiar either."

"What, really?" The Doctor feigned confusion. "I met you a few months ago, when you started working here, remember? We met at the security office, Alicia Gordon." It took him a moment to remember the woman's name.

The guard raised an eyebrow, "I don't remember that."

"Of course not, no one remembers a lonely Professor anyway," he said, looking around as if he was disinterested.

"I'll check with the security office," Alicia offered. She pressed the ear piece she was wearing and began to speak. "Sir, we have a couple of... scientists down here," she said, as the Doctor nodded his approval of the title. "Their names are John Smith and Jane Doe. They say the President authorized a systems check for them at this time."

The man who Alicia was supposed to be speaking to couldn't hear a thing. Jenny had made sure of that. Instead, a convincing, computer generated male voice answered her, "Yes, that is correct. Please escort them and then return to your post."

Alicia pressed the ear piece again and the connection was shut off. "Looks like you both check out. Let's go."

"Ah, lovely!" The Doctor was glad she just took the gun away from his head. Jenny smiled at him excitedly and they followed the guard through the double doors and to the large door that Jenny had described earlier. Alicia finally left them alone after they thanked her for the escort. Several of the other guards had watched them suspiciously as they walked the corridor, but Alicia had reassured each of them that this was indeed authorized.

"Whew, that was fun!" Jenny said excitedly, her blond hair flying about since she couldn't stand still for the life of her.

"What are you? The Energizer bunny?" He always wanted to use that line.

"Well I'm excited!" she said, her heels clicking on the floor as she paced about. "I've never done anything this big before."

"What does that mean?" he asked, fiddling with the sonic screwdriver once more, trying to find the setting for keypads.

"I mean, I've been to a few other planets too. Nothing much happened on them, though I did manage to save some people in a hovercar wreck," she informed him.

He smiled. That was what she'd wanted. To save people.

"Ah ha!" he pointed the sonic screwdriver at the keypad and it beeped, opening the door. The room inside was enormous and they stepped in cautiously. There were large computers at the back of the room, but what lined the sides was what caught his attention.

Pods. Airtight pods. Each pod was about seven feet tall and had a door that was shut tight. They were green and possessed computerized locks. Jenny held a hand against her stomach, as if that could fend off the nausea she was feeling.

"...What are they?"

"Humans."

Each pod contained a human, or what was left of them. Each person was full of tubes and had a breathing mask over their face. There was a colored mist inside the pods and it coated their skin. The Doctor saw the mist being fed into their breathing tube, along with oxygen to breathe. He looked at many of the pods; the living apparatuses were all the same.

Each human was different, though. They were all mutated. Some had deformed skulls, others had huge claws on their hands. There were mutations of all kinds, but the thing that the people all had in common were green scales, from some sort of lizard he guessed.

He ran to the computer in the back, putting his glasses on along the way, and frantically began searching through it for information, using the sonic screwdriver. Jenny was looking at each pod in both curiosity and horror.

"They're-"

"Doused with Foamasi DNA, I know, isn't it brilliant?" There was a voice from above, on a metal platform. A man stood there in a black suit, with dark, thinning hair and a tall, thin frame.

"Jason Wright, I presume," the Doctor said, backing up from the computer to get a proper look at the man. Jenny stood beside him, trying to keep her eyes away from the pods now. They scared her. There was something unsettling about them, aside from the fact of their existence. She'd almost touched a pod, but the strange feeling was too much for her to bear.

"That would be me," the man answered, looking down at them. "Your hacking skills are formidable, Miss Smith."

The Doctor looked at Jenny, confused. "Well what other last name was I supposed to give them?" she said quickly. "It's the one you use for yourself, so..."

"I did manage to catch you both hacking into my private servers, though. A very good job, I must say. I had been visiting and guarding this place while my hired hands were out fetching my materials and I caught you both sneaking around my servers. Who are you and how did you get down here anyway?"

"I'm the Doctor and that's not important," the Doctor answered, quickly launching into a rant that Jenny was more than happy to watch. "So you kidnap people and douse them with Foamasi DNA, use radiation and splicing to integrate the Foamasi DNA into the human DNA, and then what? Sell them off? Make an army? 'Cause there's no one else on this planet for miles and miles. You'd barely have anything to take over. So you're selling them then?"

"Why would I sell my pets?" Wright answered, looking down on the pair of them with a smug facial expression.

"So you keep them as pets? Your own personal project?" the Doctor yelled, and Jenny took his hand, trying to calm him.

"These particular ones, yes. They never live very long. Once this process is perfected, I can create my own race of Human-Foamasi hybrids and use them for whatever I want."

"That usually entails taking over some planet," the Doctor retorted, looking at one of the pods against his better judgment.

"If it suits me at the time... then yes."

"But why would you do that?" Jenny demanded, finally finding her voice again.

He shrugged. "Because I can. They'll likely be sold off as Black Market guard dogs to the wealthy after the method is perfected. Or sell them to the military. After I keep a few for myself, of course. They have a lot of work yet."

"But where did you get this technology? This... This is Dalek technology." He said their name as if it was a curse, moving his tongue around his teeth as he thought. He remembered that they had done this. Tried to integrate Dalek DNA with human DNA and he had helped them. So many had died.

"Interesting thing about this technology," Wright answered, seemingly more full of himself as every second passed. He began walking casually back and forth, pacing across the platform. "It was found on Earth, of all places. In the Empire State Building, in the 1900s, according to records."

The Doctor suddenly turned very pale, "What?"

"Yes, it was found in pieces and many scientists were brought in to examine it. No one knew what it was, exactly, but it was preserved and documented. It took quite a long time, but the purpose was eventually derived. I found blueprints, lists of chemicals, everything, after hacking into a few military databases and bribing some greedy lifeforms, of course. And I have more than enough money to put it into practice, seeing as this company has been around for over a hundred years."

The Doctor looked around the room, almost frantically confused, but Jenny knew he wasn't. "It's... This is all my fault. I just left the destroyed lab there. It was supposed to gather dust and be cleared out but... Humans," he scoffed quietly. "Always meddling where they shouldn't be."

The psychic paper flitted across his mind, almost as an afterthought. He paused, then turned his gaze from Wright to Jenny. "Stand back."

"Why, what are you going to do?" He didn't reply, but she stood back anyway.

The Doctor stood in the middle of the room and opened his mind.

They were all screaming. Screaming inside their heads. The fusion of Foamasi and human DNA was causing a mutation in their brains. They could give off a crude telepathic field now, but it was uncontrolled. And they were in so much pain. He could feel it. Dying slowly, but the pods were forcing them to live, forcing them to endure incredible agony. A few of them still retained small bits of their humanity, which was focused on one emotion only.

The Doctor remembered feeling like this before. Before Rose... The feeling of wanting to die.

Jenny approached him slowly and saw that there were tears on his face. "What's wrong?" she asked softly.

:"You can't hear that?" he asked, incredulous, looking through her as if she were invisible. "It's them, all of them. They're emitting a telepathic field. That's why I'm here, it reached the TARDIS, the psychic paper, it's..."

Jenny looked at the pods. Was that the strange feeling she was getting? She approached one, but the Doctor grabbed her hand away before she could touch it. "Don't."

"Why not?"

"Because you don't want to, believe me. You just don't." He was no longer crying. His face was hard, angry. Furious.

He turned to the man who was standing above them, watching them both smugly as if there was no possible way they could get away, and they would be his new test subjects. "I'm giving you one chance, Jason Wright. Just one. Shut down the project, let these creatures die in peace, and let this room gather dust. If you don't... I will stop you."

Wright hit a button on the wall. "Not a chance." Alarms rang out from every direction. Red lights pulsed through the air. The pods were opening.


	6. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer****: **As much as I would love having The Master's incredibly sexy self tied up in my basement for the rest of forever, I do not own Doctor Who or anything affiliated with it. Except in my head.

This fic is set between "Planet of the Dead" and "Waters of Mars". I love reviews! And the Master!

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"What are you doing?" Jenny yelled, watching the creatures slowly emerge from the pods in fright. The door they had come through promptly shut, locking them in.

"Run!" The Doctor grabbed Jenny's hand. They ran. Jason Wright laughed.

There was a door on the upper platform that likely led to his office and he retreated through it.

"C'mon c'mon c'mon!" The Doctor pointed the sonic screwdriver at the door they'd come though, but it didn't budge. "Deadlocked!" He looked about frantically. The creatures were grotesque things, all driven mad by the experiments. They were sluggish, but that wouldn't last for long.

Jenny pointed at the ladder, "There!" It led to the upper platform, where Jason had just disappeared. She pulled the Doctor in that direction and screamed as one of the creatures lunged at them. They all suddenly snapped awake, as if the psychic field was connecting their intentions, and lumbered as fast as they all could after the two Time Lords.

The Doctor pushed Jenny ahead of him. "Go, hurry up!" She scaled the ladder expertly, something quite difficult to do in heels. The Doctor quickly followed her, but cringed as he almost lost a leg to one of the creatures. Jenny grabbed his hand and yanked him up, showing her strength despite her thin frame. The creatures howled in rage and pain.

The door that Jason Wright had disappeared through was shut and locked, but the sonic screwdriver was able to open it without a problem. Instead of a hallway or an elevator as they were expecting, they were abruptly presented with a teleporter.

"Oh, wonderful," the Doctor pointed the sonic screwdriver at the control panel and it lit up instantly, despite the fact that Jason Wright had disabled its use from wherever he had taken it to. "No wonder the building is made of concrete." Jenny scanned the screen on the panel quickly.

"Two exit paths... It looks like one is inside the building and one is outside."

"One to his office and one to escape when things go wrong," the Doctor supposed. He stepped forward and started fiddling with the controls, much as he had done with Jenny's computer. He was almost done when he heard Jenny speak.

"Dad." He turned.

Jenny was looking at him, and through him, with the most sorrowful gaze he'd ever seen. Tears were almost cascading down her face, one after the other. She was almost shaking with sadness.

"I can hear it," she said, almost choking on her own words. "I can hear them screaming. Begging to die. I can feel them, Dad, I can feel it-"

"Jenny, look at me! Jenny!" he grabbed her shoulders and held them steady. She looked into his face, but the tears wouldn't stop. "We can't do anything for them now. They're in pain, yes, but they'll die soon without the pods to keep them alive. That's what they really want. We have to let them go, there's no way to save them."

"But you try to save everyone," she sobbed, raising a hand to cover her mouth. "That's what you do! You save people!"

"Those aren't people anymore," he said solemnly. Jenny fell silent. He hugged her briefly, then gently let her go and went back to working on the teleporter. He hit a button and the device powered up silently. He grabbed her hand. "Ready?"

Jenny wiped the tears off of her face and nodded. She let the link go; they were all gone now. Still down in the laboratory, but no longer in her head. She decided it was an odd feeling, mourning for the living.

They stepped onto the teleporter and disappeared.

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Jenny decided teleportation was fun, but it left your toes a bit tingly. They appeared in a similarly sized room as before, but with many more computers shoved into it; the center of operations for his teleporter. The Doctor waved the sonic screwdriver around and disabled everything. There was a door opposite them and they approached it cautiously. "It must connect to his office," he thought aloud. He pressed his ear against it, but heard nothing, which was decidedly odd in itself. They both stood back and the Doctor opened the door with a prod from the sonic screwdriver. He certainly was using it a lot today.

Jason Wright was seated at his desk, watching the holoscreen behind his desk. He seemed only mildly surprised to see the two Time Lords, but was decidedly irritated to be taken away from the scene unfolding in the laboratory. He made a slight motion to the couches in front of them, but neither Time Lord moved an inch. His office was large and white, too white for Jenny's liking. The paint caught the sunlight from the windows on their right and brought her eyes slight discomfort.

"I've been getting reports," Jason Wright began, pressing a button on his desk. The screen behind him shifted to several other security cameras, showing almost every hallway and floor completely empty. "My employees have all vacated the premises. Now why would they do that?"

"Well," the Doctor said, casually walking toward the other man while pulling at an irritating itch on his right ear. "That's probably because I hacked into your server from a laptop on floor seven and made it accessible to every computer in the building. Or it could be because I used your teleporter's internal computer to re-route the laboratory's security footage from the last ten minutes into every computer in the building." He paused, Jenny at his side. "Either or. I'm guessing everyone ran for their lives," he said, slipping his hands into his pockets. "Imagine that." His gaze was the same as before, Jenny noticed. The gaze that could save planets, destroy evil, and force its way into the core of your soul, even if everyone in the universe was sure you didn't have one.

Jason Wright frowned. "You've made trouble for me. I'll have to relocate my project elsewhere. Disappointing," he added. He didn't quite like the two people standing in front of his desk.

"What gives you the right to do that to them?" The Doctor's voice was eerily calm, but Jenny felt a charge in the air, one that could snap like a twig at any moment.

"Come come now." Wright crossed his legs at the ankles, slow and deliberate. "It's just a little science experiment-"

"A science experiment?" The Doctor lurched forward and slammed his hands on the desk. "You take them away from their families, take away their humanity, their will to live, and you call that a 'little science experiment'?" Wright didn't answer, but Jenny could feel his discomfort. She suddenly noticed something out of the corner of her eye and she turned her head in curiosity.

"They want to die," the Doctor continued loudly, spiky hair almost touching the other man's face. "Do you understand that? They _want_ to _**die**_!"

"Then die they shall." Wright reached for a button beneath his desk and he managed to hit it before the Doctor could grab his hand and stop him.

"What did you do?" the Doctor demanded. Wright said nothing. "Tell me what you've done!"

"Observe," he replied smugly. The holoscreen behind him was flipping through the series of cameras on L0, eventually switching between the three in the loading bay. He watched the Doctor's face turn from confusion to horror.

"Dad..." Jenny said, looking out the window.

"They're all innocent, why do they have to die too?" he Doctor watched as the hybrids were unleashed on the guards outside their prison. Most of them had little time to react and were aptly slaughtered. The guards somewhat caught their bearings and managed to take out a handful of the creatures before the final guard was killed. Including Alicia Gordon. The Doctor was livid. "You have to stop this, _now_-"

"Why now, I'm just getting started!" Automatically, the doors to the elevator opened. The creatures bounded towards it in confusion. The Doctor realized that the entire process was automated. There were still people inside the building. And the hybrids were coming.

"Dad," Jenny said again, still transfixed to the window.

"What?" he turned and followed her gaze.

"It's raining," she said finally, looking at him curiously.

"That's nice, I'm a bit busy here, so-" He paused. And then he stared as well. It was a look of confusion, fright, and knowledge.

"It's raining," he acknowledged, his voice quiet.

Jenny paused in confusion. "But why is it going up?"


	7. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer****: **As much as I would love having The Master's incredibly sexy self tied up in my basement for the rest of forever, I do not own Doctor Who or anything affiliated with it. Except in my head.

This fic is set between "Planet of the Dead" and "Waters of Mars". I love reviews! And the Master!

And I noticed that, in the course of writing this fic, I keep imagining Jenny in her "The Doctor's Daughter" clothes, even though she's definitely not wearing those anymore... Lol

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Now Jason Wright was worried. "Who would have-"

"Probably one of your guards," the Doctor interrupted. "They _are_ off-planet military, after all."

"What is it?" Jenny asked curiously. Rain didn't go up, that just didn't make any sense.

"Judoon."

"There's something weird outside, like a forcefield," Jenny continued, feigning innocence. Perhaps if they didn't run into the Judoon, everything would be alright.

"What?" The Doctor ran to the window to examine this forcefield himself. "Would you look at that. 61st century containment field. Guess they don't move buildings anymore. Would make sense, I guess, that was four thousand years ago. The rain doesn't quite make sense though, we haven't moved off-planet."

"Well it was raining normally before," Jenny replied. "Then it started going back up." That part was new to her, but the Doctor didn't respond. Instead, he pulled out the sonic screwdriver and disabled the teleporter that Jason Wright was trying to sneak around them and take.

"I don't think so," the Doctor said, turning to face the man again. "The Judoon are here. Time to take responsibility for your actions."

"I think not," he replied, reaching back and hitting a button on one of the many computers that were humming away next to the teleporter, the only button that had been conveniently deadlocked. Alarms everywhere began to sound. "There won't be anything left," he said, grinning smugly.

It took him a moment to register what exactly the other man had just done. "You built a deadlocked self-destruct mechanism into the laboratory that's under an office building?" The Doctor was incredulous. "People work here! There are still some people in this building, you could kill them!"

"A small price to pay," he said through gritted teeth. "The laboratory will be destroyed, along with all the physical evidence."

"That's not fair!" Jenny protested. "It's not their fault you're a crazy-"

"Jenny, don't." It was the same look, like he was looking over an invisible pair of glasses and into her hearts. "I'll stop him, _we'll_ stop him." Jenny nodded. "I can't stop the Judoon from executing him and it doesn't look like he can be reasoned with." It hurt to leave someone to death, but he knew that Jason Wright had caused enough suffering. "We can sneak around them and help everyone else that's left in the building get out." Jenny nodded again. The alarms continued, loud and harsh. Red lights flashed in the hallway outside the office.

"You'll die too, you know," the Doctor watched Jason carefully, speaking to him once again. "You'll be taken away by the Judoon, or executed on the spot."

Jason's gaze fell on the holoscreen behind them. "Not if they die by the time they get here." He pointed at the screen in satisfaction. The hybrids were in the lobby, destroying everything in their path, human or object, when the Judoon marched in the front doors. The fighting began immediately. Jenny kept her eyes on the window while her father looked on in disgust.

A few of the Judoon broke off and took the elevator up. There was nowhere for Jason Wright to go. He reached down and pulled a hand gun from where it was strapped to his lower leg. The Doctor was immediately between Wright and Jenny, hands up. "You don't have to do this," he said slowly. "Just give up and no more people have to die. The hybrids will die off, your employees will escape, and the Judoon can leave unharmed."

"It's too late," he answered, the sweat now visible on his brow. "The self-destruct is on a twenty minute timer. And you only have seventeen minutes left." The gun was agitating Jenny, but only because she knew precisely every weak point in its structure and exactly how to disable it four different ways. Dad, however, wouldn't let her move a muscle. It was just then that the elevator down the hall made its lovely dinging noise. They heard marching.

The Doctor used Jason as a focal point and rotated around the room with Jenny behind him. The instant before the Judoon entered the room, they both ducked behind one of the couches.

The door was forced open and five Judoon marched in. Jason's gun swung to the nearest one and it spoke, "You will be cataloged." It scanned him while he stood with a crazed look in his eye. It changed a setting on its gun as it spelled out the man's crimes. "Identified as Jason Orwell Wright. You are charged with murder, sixteen counts of kidnapping, sixteen counts of illegal genetic experimentation, purchasing illegal testing materials including chemicals, containment pods, computers, and radioactive substances, as well as questionable ethical practices. You have been found guilty. Sentence is death by immediate execution." Jason turned and made a lunge for the teleporter room, but he was disintegrated before a single foot landed on the floor. The Doctor only watched.

The open door was right in front of them. That was the Doctor's only concern at the moment. They had almost made it when one of the Judoon turned and spotted them. "Halt! Possible identification of two accomplices of Jason Orwell Wright!"

The Doctor and Jenny jumped up, hands in the air and backed against the open door. "Not accomplices! We're not-"

"Identify yourselves!" the lead Judoon demanded, pulling out his cataloging device. He scanned Jenny while the Doctor spoke.

"That's not important," the Doctor said quickly. "The laboratory underneath this building is going to explode in exactly fourteen minutes and you aren't going to believe that are you? Not even with the alarms?"

The Judoon just blinked.

"Yeah, I thought not."

"Was worth a try," Jenny offered nervously. It might as well have been a fire alarm.

"Okay, but what was the rain for?" The Doctor asked, trying to distract them.

"H2O Scoops have been modified to collect and neutralize harmful substances within containment fields."

"Oh, so you just killed bacteria and things, that's useful," he thought aloud. Jenny gave him a glance that said 'please stay on topic'.

The device that the Judoon was holding made an odd beeping noise. "Lifeform identified. Jenny Smith. Wanted for obstructing an official Judoon investigation and assisting the escape of two wanted criminals. Sentence is five years in prison."

"What?" The Doctor said, looking at Jenny, who was looking back rather sheepishly.

"I said I saved some people in a hovercar wreck... They were innocent!" she added.

"Right!" The Doctor turned his attention back to the Judoon as they approached Jenny. "So, uh, you see, the thing is, um... yeah." He quickly grabbed Jenny's hand and ran out the door.


	8. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer****: **As much as I would love having The Master's incredibly sexy self tied up in my basement for the rest of forever, I do not own Doctor Who or anything affiliated with it. Except in my head.

This fic is set between "Planet of the Dead" and "Waters of Mars". I love reviews! And the Master!

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Lasers flashed over their heads, dancing with the lights from the alarms. "Running, running." Jenny said, dodging a shot to her arm. "I did miss all the running!"

The Doctor grinned and pulled her along. He took a bouncy ball out of his pocket and threw it as hard as he could down the hall at the elevator button. The machine dinged and they both ran inside as the doors opened. The Judoon were marching their way, unwilling to break their uniformed walk. The two Time Lords were on either side of the doors, out of the way of their fire. The Doctor sonic'd the contraption so that it wouldn't divulge which floor they chose.

"So, where to?" Jenny asked, right next to the buttons.

"Let's check an upper floor," he answered. "We can use a computer to check the security cameras for people." Jenny nodded and hit the button for floor twenty one. The doors shut not-quite-as-fast-as-they-had-hoped, but rather just-fast-enough. The elevator hummed as it took them down two floors. Floor twenty two had Wright's staff's offices, but neither of them were much interested in people who didn't inquire when their co-workers disappeared. Perhaps they had assisted Wright somehow. It was probable, at least, but they would have likely gotten out long ago as soon as the alarms had sounded, knowing exactly what they meant. The rest of the employees would have had a much more difficult time getting out with one elevator, if the express elevator button on L0 was any indication. They were likely on select floors as well.

They stepped out onto floor twenty one. It seemed deserted, but they quickly checked everywhere just in case. "You know," Jenny said suddenly. "I've been here for a few weeks and I've never seen a flight of stairs."

"That is a very good observation, Jenny," The Doctor said, taking out the sonic screwdriver and scanning the walls around them. The wall to his right seemed to be hollow... He knocked on it. It definitely sounded hollow.

"Secret stairwell?" Jenny asked, coming over to him.

"Yep, I think so. And judging from the sound of the vibrations, it was only an escape for the privileged," he said with a tinge of anger. "The top of the stairwell is a floor or two up." He walked to the nearest computer and sonic'd it into use. He accessed the security cameras from all over the building and it seemed as though every human had gotten out. The Judoon were searching all over the place for them, however. Jenny watched the elevator doors, hoping that they wouldn't open any time soon. They had ten minutes.

"Now what?" she asked, watching him flip through the cameras almost too fast for her to keep up.

"The Judoon aren't going to leave until they find us, but they'll be killed if they do. Except they don't believe they're in danger, they just think it's a diversion. I don't know how to make them believe it." He paced about for a second. "Wait... If I can convince the Judoon to get out of the building and _then_ use the H2O scoop as it was originally intended, they can send just the building to this planet's moon. It'll explode and that'll be that! Except they would never do that because it's against protocol..." He made a noise of frustration. "What to do, what to do..."

"Wait, what if we went back down into the laboratory? There were computers down there, the self-destruct might have a disable. It would make sense if it wasn't connected to the rest of the system, he had it deadlocked," Jenny said in a rush.

"Jenny, you are brilliant!" he hugged her, then they rushed off to the elevator. The Doctor sonic'd the machine the whole way down to be perfectly silent and ignore all other requests for passengers. They passed the lobby, hoping the Judoon would be too distracted to notice.

Back on L0 with eight minutes to go. As they stepped out of the elevator, they saw all of the dead bodies, humans and hybrids alike. The Doctor couldn't help at least shutting the eyes of those humans who still had them open in fright. Jenny helped, but it was only a few moments until they heard the ding of the elevator and a troop of Judoon appeared out of the elevator behind them.

Six minutes. The Doctor grabbed Jenny's hand and they ran. Lasers flew around them in a barrage and Jenny suddenly screamed. "Dad!" He lost touch of her hand and she fell, barely catching herself before she smacked her shoulder into the floor.

"Jenny!" He turned back and helped her up. "What's wrong?"

"They hit me," she said, gritting her teeth. "My leg, my right calf." The Doctor quickly examined it. Blood was already seeping through her gray suit and down her leg. The Judoon were behind them, but perhaps just far enough... If he could get her back to the TARDIS, proper medical attention would be a piece of cake. Or pie. He rather liked pie this time around.

He put her arm around his shoulders and helped her walk back to the laboratory. The Judoon were marching, but of course they refused to break stride. The Time Lords were out of their range now, and it would take them a bit to navigate the hallways down here; it might buy them a bit of time. Thanks to Jason Wright, the door was already open, but the Doctor took no satisfaction in this fact. He set Jenny on the floor gently, then ran to the computer at the back of the room.

Jenny ripped the end of her pant leg off and made a makeshift tourniquet. Not the best thing in the world, but it would help the bleeding at least. "Dad?" The Doctor raised his head from the computer. She saw his face and was instantly afraid. "Dad, what is it?"

"It's not just a self-destruct," he said, face twisted in defeat. She'd never seen him so angry. Enraged, even. "It's a nuclear bomb. He wanted nothing left."

"A what? But that would destroy everything within hundreds of miles! Why would he do that? Did he hate life that much?" She grabbed the open door of one of the pods and pulled herself to a standing position. The room felt different now that the hybrids were gone. She wasn't sure if the Doctor could hear any of them anymore; perhaps they'd all been killed by now.

Three minutes. What was he supposed to do? The Doctor ran to her side to help her walk. "We're gonna be okay, Jenny. We Time Lords have a way to survive almost anything." He quickly explained the regeneration process to her as she somehow made her way back up the ladder, with both an injured leg and heels. It was at that precise moment the Judoon found them.

"Halt!" They raised their weapons and prepared to shoot.

"Sorry, no can do!" The Doctor pointed the sonic screwdriver at the closest pods to the Judoon and they sparked violently, catching fire and blocking their path. He scrabbled up the ladder after Jenny. She was already in the teleporter room, waiting for him.

"Hold on," he paused, rummaging through his pockets. He handed her a small piece of gold colored metal. "TARDIS key," he explained hurriedly. "That's my ship. You'll be able to find it, big blue box, can't miss it. If something happens, you take the teleporter and leave. The TARDIS will take you somewhere safe." He placed his hands on either side of her face and stared reassuringly into her eyes. He could tell that she was scared, despite trying to be strong; she was technically less than a year old. "I'm-" he paused, then continued with something in his voice that Jenny hadn't heard since she died. "I'm your Dad. I won't let you die again."

He remembered Jenny telling him once that all the children of the Progenation Machine were taught only how to fight and how to die. He wouldn't let anything happen to her before she properly learned how to live.

Jenny hesitantly took the key and nodded, holding on to it tightly. She wanted to argue, of course, but they only had two minutes left. The Judoon were still here and they had to at least try to save them. The Doctor sonic'd the device back into operation and they teleported back up to the office of Jason Wright.


	9. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer****: **As much as I would love having The Master's incredibly sexy self tied up in my basement for the rest of forever, I do not own Doctor Who or anything affiliated with it. Except in my head.

This fic is set between "Planet of the Dead" and "Waters of Mars". I love reviews! And the Master!

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As soon as they'd reappeared where they meant to be, they could hear the alarms clearly again. The Doctor helped Jenny forward and they stepped over the remains of Jason Wright directly into the horn of a Judoon.

"Identified as Jenny Smith and accomplice," he said, raising his gun. There were two other Judoon behind him with their weapons also raised. The Doctor noted that one of them was the platoon leader.

"Don't, don't shoot! Just, just wait a moment." The Doctor had his arm around Jenny's waist and she was watching the Judoon closely. He reset the teleporter's target location as he spoke. "Those alarms, there's a bomb in the basement of this building. I tried disabling it and I can't. This whole building is going to go explode in ninety seconds. You have to get out, there's no way I can do anything. You have to leave now!"

"You are charged with-"

"Oh, come off it!" he said testily. "You're going to execute us while there's a bomb in the basement about to kill you?" The Judoon seemed to think for a moment, then they turned to one another and began to talk.

Jenny watched the exchange, pondering her father. He was always so courageous and kind. He had the biggest heart of anyone she'd ever met, though she was less than a year old. A thought occurred to her that she must seem so small to him.

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He had to save her.

That was the thought at the forefront of his mind. Jenny, who had come so far and changed so much. Jenny who could _not_ die again. He wanted to apologize for back then, for what he'd said to her. He was little more than an echo of a Time Lord himself, sometimes.

He hadn't completely explained the regeneration process to her, for lack of time. He was certain she could do it, just not certain how well she could control it. Not to mention that it could be turned away, just as the Master had done to spite him. The other Time Lord briefly crossed his mind, along with the prophecy from the kind woman back on Earth. It wasn't possible, of course. He had burned the Master's body himself. He just couldn't figure out what it really meant, what it could possibly mean.

But now he had Jenny. And a platoon of Judoon.

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The Doctor counted the seconds. They had twenty-five left.

The Judoon ended their talk, guns raised. "Obstruction of justice. Refusal to disarm explosives-"

"I told you, I can't do it!" Sometimes... Judoon were just stupid.

"And I can't either!" Jenny added.

"Follow us to my ship. I can get all three of you out of here, you'll survive, I promise, but you have to come with us now-"

"Penalty for your collective crimes is death!" The Judoon raised their guns.

"No!" Jenny jumped with her good leg and pushed off the wall just as the lasers flew. The two Time Lords fell into the teleporter.

The timer hit ten seconds.

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The Doctor and Jenny stumbled out of the teleporter, which was a significant distance from the building itself, but still in sight of it. The Doctor noticed movement outside the building, strange black specks from where he was standing. It took him only a few seconds to realize what they were.

"No... No!" The people who worked in the building were stuck inside the Judoon's containment field. They couldn't get through until it was lifted, and now it would never be.

He watched as the bomb exploded. The brilliant flash of light burned his eyes and he shut them quickly. Moments later, the light faded. He opened his eyes. The containment field had absorbed everything. It was all stuck inside, all that radiation and senseless death. They were all gone. Every human that had been inside that building, the hybrids, the Judoon... All dead.

He turned to Jenny. "Jenny, you're so heavy, why-"

He stopped. Jenny wasn't moving.

"No... No no no no no!" He saw the blood, her blood, all down the front of her suit. He picked her up and her head lolled backward against his arm. He quickly set her down on the ground, cradling her as he had the first time she had died.

She had saved him, he realized, seeing the multiple shots in her chest. She had put herself right between them and him. She had protected him instead of protecting herself. "Regenerate Jenny," he demanded loudly, tears falling onto her still form as he rocked her back and forth. "You were supposed to stay with me this time! We were going to do so much... **Regenerate, please**!"

She couldn't even say goodbye this time. And there wasn't a terraforming device to save her. He screamed.

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And he waited. For a week he sat next to her body. Maybe she would be ginger before he got to be. Would she be taller than him? That might be awkward. He briefly wondered if she would end up looking like him, this regeneration of his. People would assume they were a couple, just as they always did with his companions. But he wouldn't mind this explanation.


	10. Epilogue

**Disclaimer****: **As much as I would love having The Master's incredibly sexy self tied up in my basement for the rest of forever, I do not own Doctor Who or anything affiliated with it. Except in my head.

This fic is set between "Planet of the Dead" and "Waters of Mars". I love reviews! And the Master!

xxxxxxxxxx

She was sad.

She could feel his sadness, being connected to him as she was. He was always sad.

She stood vigilant through the course of the week. She could feel him not too far away, but not close enough to see.

The Judoon's forcefield would hold up for a few more days before it fell and spread the disease of radiation across the planet. They would be gone by then, she knew. She hadn't even gotten to touch the mind of the female Time Lord. She mourned that loss, and mourned for her friend.

After the week had passed, she gently reached out to his mind, the equivalent of a consoling embrace. He neither accepted nor pushed her away, simply sat next to the body of the one she knew now was called Jenny.

She didn't take information or read everyone's mind like Rose always thought she did. She only entered someone's thoughts if they allowed it. The Doctor had always permitted it, except for the year after the Time War. Back then, it was easy for him to drown alone in that worn leather jacket. Aside from then, she'd always known him.

She felt it when he finally stood from his seated position. He hadn't eaten or slept in seven Earth days. Time Lords could live longer without food or sleep than humans could, but seven days was when she started to get concerned. Then again, he had survived for almost two Earth weeks without food and rest after the Time War had ended.

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She felt his energy, when he finally brought the body of Jenny to her. He chose a comfortable room with a bed for her body, then found an empty one elsewhere and set to work. She watched without so much as a peep.

He stripped off unused pieces from her framework, which she really didn't mind. Bolts, wires, and metal sheets were given to his project, and she was more than happy to give. She watched him as he went, still without food or sleep. He worked for two days before he finished.

A metal coffin sat in the middle of the room. It was a monitoring system as well, one that would inform him the very instant that she woke up. In the meantime, she had a quiet place to sleep peacefully.

He placed Jenny in the coffin gently, ignoring her cold skin and ghost white face. The lid he had crafted held a window for him to see inside. He looked at her one last time, then turned and left the room. The coffin would preserve her, until her body regenerated.

She felt him re-enter the control room. He was silent, just as he had been for the last nine days. He began flipping switches here and there, not caring where he was going.

Those innocent people didn't have to die, he thought. Jenny didn't deserve to die. The hybrids didn't deserve the terrible suffering they endured at the hands of Jason Wright.

But the Judoon... He couldn't help thinking that they had deserved their deaths.

She softly whirred her agreement. It was almost time now. She quietly adjusted his directions and off they went. The red planet was where she must take him. It had to happen, it must happen.

She wondered if Jenny would recognize her father when she woke up.


End file.
